The Moscow Basmanny Court affirmed Roskomnadzor’s lawsuit and canceled the printed edition license of Novaya Gazeta on July 26. The Ministry had sought the media’s registration cancellation because the broadcasting regulatory requirements were not fulfilled within the legally specified deadlines. The court told TASS that it had satisfied Roskomnadzor’s administrative request to cancel the registration certificate issued to CJSC Publishing House Novaya Gazeta.
The editor in chief, Dmitry Muratov, criticized the decision as political, saying it lacks any legal basis. He described the move as a routine political decision and stressed that the action has no sound legal grounds. This position is reported by Mediazona, an organization listed as a foreign agent by the Ministry of Justice.
RBC quoted representatives reiterating a firm stance: the documents had been submitted years earlier and the organization would appeal and pursue all available avenues.
Former press secretary Nadezhda Prusenkova noted that the Roskomnadzor case related to the re-registration in 2006, while the rule mandating a charter update within three months only appeared in 2018. It was also emphasized that changes to constituent documents cannot by themselves justify license revocation under the law.
How did they turn off the new publication?
Roskomnadzor issued the first warning to Novaya Gazeta on March 22 for the absence of the NPO foreign agent mark on one material. A second warning arrived on March 28, less than a week later. Editors subsequently announced that the newspaper would suspend print, website updates, and social media activity through the end of the special operations in Ukraine.
Muratov communicated to readers that the second warning left no other option but to pause the newspaper and refrain from updating digital platforms until the conflict on Ukrainian soil concludes. The measure was described as painful and difficult but necessary to safeguard the publication and its audience.
From late February 2022 onward, the Prosecutor General’s Office and Roskomnadzor issued six notices demanding removal of materials deemed to contain false socially important information.
New projects
Following the suspension, Novaya Gazeta journalists launched two ventures. One was New Newspaper Europe with Kirill Martynov serving as chief editor, and the other was New Story-Newspaper. Both projects faced blocking at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office in Russia.
The first issue of New Story-Gazeta appeared on July 15. Access to Novaya.no was restricted as part of measures to block sites calling for insurrection, extremism, or participation in illegal mass actions. This marked the brief window of operation for the platform.
On September 6, the Basmanny Court evaluated Roskomnadzor’s claim to invalidate the registration of Novaya Gazeta. Moreover, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation was scheduled to consider the broader question of the newspaper’s online presence on September 15.
Novaya Gazeta was established in 1993 by former employees of Komsomolskaya Pravda, among them Dmitry Muratov. The publication received support from former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, and control rests with the editorial team.
As of March 2022, the newspaper reported a circulation of 108.1 thousand. During its nearly three-decade history, several staff members were killed, and Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his commitment to protecting freedom of expression.